After the recent decision by Swan Hill Rural City Council to not lease Swan Hill Dragway to the Skid City Consortium, the council has since backflipped with one Councillor calling an unscheduled meeting to change his voting decision. As a result, the council now intends to grant the consortium a lease on the site so drag racing can return to the venue.
“A motion put up by councillor Chris Jeffery to grant Skid City a 3-year lease was passed on Monday (Sep 16 2024) by the Swan Hill Rural City Council. We received confirmation from Council yesterday that officers were in the process of drafting up a lease with terms and conditions attached. We don’t expect any surprises with the lease but the terms and conditions must be suitable for Alec (Berias) and myself,” said Mark Humphrey, for Skid City Consortium.
“With regards to the operations the following apply. Skid City management will have executive control over the drag racing facility. Alec will be responsible for the racing surface upgrades and racer facilities while I will manage the complex and oversee infrastructure upgrades.
“We will be using the Swan Hill Drag Club members and other volunteers for the ground services and race day support. I will be leaning on Swan Hill Drag Club president Gary Rovere for his assistance and knowledge on existing ground services and recommendations during the infrastructure upgrades. Gary’s support of Skid City has been outstanding to date leading to a good working relationship.
“The facility will be exclusively ANDRA sanctioned making this the only exclusive ANDRA 1/4 mile track in Victoria. We have been informed by Council that the lease process will take up to 6 weeks to complete after which time we are free to begin work. The aim is to have the dragstrip operational by October/November of next year. We will update the progress on the track from time to time.
Swan Hill Dragway, while much loved since its opening in 2016, has had a troubled existence up until its controversial closure only a couple of years later. Constant ground movement had caused issues with the track surface levels, and despite attempts to rectify the problem, the issue could not be resolved affordably and the venue closed to drag racing operations. The new consortium, Skid City, headed by Alec Berias and Mark Humphrey now with the lease pending on the site will seek funding, conduct the necessary works to fix the track level problems, and return racing to the Victorian/NSW border-town venue on the shores of the Murray River.
